Abstract

Despite an abundance of archaeological material recovered from sites in Island Southeast Asia, the timing and route by which cultigens first arrived in Wallacea remains unclear. Many of the staple crops now grown on these islands were domesticated in mainland Asia, and were deliberately introduced by humans at an unknown point during the Holocene, through several possible routes. In this study, the δ 13C, δ15N and δ18O values of subfossil bones and teeth attributed to Sus celebensis and Sus scrofa are analyzed. These materials, which span the last 5160 years at Liang Bua, Flores, Indonesia are used to determine if and when there was a shift towards agricultural intensification, and whether this intensification included the integration of domesticated C4 crops. The δ13C and δ15N values of the bone and dentin collagen samples indicate an abrupt shift towards enrichment in 13C and depletion in 15N at some time between 5160 and 2750 yBP. This hints at changes in human subsistence patterns that may have included the clearing of forests, and the integration of nonendemic C4 cultigens such as foxtail millet (Setaria italica) onto the island. No statistically significant variation in the δ 18O values of the enamel carbonate samples over time is observed, suggesting that once they appeared on Flores, semidomesticated pigs became an important part of the island ecosystem, and were bred and raised on Flores instead of being continuously imported from elsewhere.

Notes

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